Workshop: Travelling Islam - the circulation of ideas in Africa

On 24 and 25 June 2021, the African Studies Centre Leiden, in coorperation with the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam in Society (LUCIS) and Centre for Arts in Society (LUCAS) organises the workshop 'Travelling Islam - the circulation of ideas in Africa'. This programme starts from the idea that cultural discourse is one of the main engines of intellectual history and the history of ideas. By following examples of Muslim discourse that have travelled across Islamic Africa, in different languages, scripts, and registers of expression, through different social environments and periods, we can deepen our understanding of the shaping of Islam in and through various African milieus. Bringing together perspectives of literature studies, history, and anthropology, this workshop aims to study circulating Islamic texts and discourses, not as monolithic and fixed archives but rather within a framework of ongoing translocal negotiation, and hence, creation, circulation, transformation, and re-appropriation. The workshop exists of four panels (panel I on Traveling Mystical Poetry, panel II on Stories of Connectiveness, panel III on Travelling Genres and Discourses, and panel IV on the Circulation of Texts), as well as round table sessions and a keynote speech by Prof. Fallou Ngom (Boston University) on 'The Significance of Ajami Sources in the Study of Muslim Africa', which is scheduled for 24 June and open to the public.

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